


Burn It!

by Shaymed



Series: War of Thorns shorts [1]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-19
Updated: 2018-07-19
Packaged: 2021-02-13 11:27:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21493537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shaymed/pseuds/Shaymed
Summary: Alisbeth and Koltira participate in the War of Thorns.
Series: War of Thorns shorts [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1549186





	Burn It!

“Kolty! _Hey, Kolty!_”

The death knight turned around to see Alisbeth grinning at him, a glowing blue ball clutched in her fingers.

“I caught a wisp! Can I keep i—_ow!_” Alisbeth threw the wisp to the ground and stomped on it until it burst into a shower of bright blue sparkles. “It bit me.”

“You’ll live,” Koltira said, his mind distracted by their mission.

He glanced behind, knowing any minute the Warchief would come through this area. Any minute the other death knight might see Sylvanas and an uncontrollable rage would cause her to do something stupid.

“Let’s head north.”

“Where?” Alisbeth asked, falling into step beside Koltira, the Maw of the Damned on her shoulder.

“North.”

“I can’t wait to see Darnassus again,” Alisbeth said later as she plucked the petals from a flower.

“When were you in Darnassus?”

“My parents took me a few years before they died. I don’t remember…anything about it, really.” She smiled at the mutilated flower and held it out for him. “I’m gonna hug so many night elves.”

When they caught up with the bulk of their forces, Koltira stopped in the tree line, a hand on Alisbeth’s cuirass and a finger to his lips. There she was, standing among the fallen swords and piled bodies. The catapults were stopped in wait and the zeppelins hovered in the air, awaiting their orders—some firing on Darnassian archers still fighting against the Horde forces.

“What now?” Alisbeth whispered, her fist clenching around the handle of her axe. Her eyes were wide and wild, staring at the banshee upon the shore. Her upper lip curled and tears welled in her eyes.

“Calm down, Ali. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“But she hurt you. It’s all her fault, Kolty. We lost everything.”

He gripped her gauntlet and pulled her forward to look into his eyes. “Don’t, Ali.”

She pursed her lips, the salt of her tears seeping between them before freezing on her skin. “Okay, Kolty. I’ll do what you say. I trust you.”

He nodded, but pursed his lips as well. He stared down at the woman standing on the shoreline. His mind flooded with hatred, yet paralyzed by the inability to do anything to harm his captor—his torturer. He knew he would follow his Warchief into the pits of oblivion, even if he may not like her or agree with her. He had no choice. And so Acherus had been his haven and his prison.

Sylvanas conversed with a fallen elf, arrows springing from her green cloak like saplings. The death knights in the trees strained to hear the story whispered from the banshee queen, but the distance was too great, and Koltira dared go no closer. Then the Warchief stood.

“Burn it,” she said.

Alisbeth frowned. “She can’t mean—”

“_Burn it!_”

“Wait, no!” Alisbeth ran forward, but Koltira took her arm.

“Stop! She gave an order!”

“A stupid order! There are innocent people in there, just like Silvermoon!”

Koltira growled. “This isn’t like Silvermoon, Ali.”

“How? Because none of them will rise from death, like you did? That makes it worse.”

He gripped her and held her back until the catapults had hurled the last ball of flame and the tree stood as a flaming pillar. Smoke swirled around them, choking the air for the living and leaving soot that fell like snowflakes to land on Alisbeth’s cheeks and stick in her tears.

When Sylvanas was gone, Alisbeth ripped free from Koltira’s grasp and stomped to the shoreline, painted red by the smoke covering the sun. He stood beside her, his lips pursed in a thin line. Alisbeth dropped to the sand on one knee. She wiped her arm across her face, smearing the ashes and freezing them in her frosty tears.

“Why, Kolty?”

But he didn’t know why. He turned away from the scene, shame eating at his heart, and listened as Alisbeth openly wept for Teldrassil.


End file.
